His Presence, Peace, Love...Amazing.

I have been in such a state of worship lately. It's such a wonderful thing to feel God's presence around you. To feel his peace, feel his presence invade your thoughts to help you see things with different eyes. I felt such a change in my heart lately about my life and the way the Lord has used different situations and circumstances to help shape me and mold me into the woman he wants me to be. I still feel like an unfinished piece, but it's wonderful to know that you are a work in "progress." One that is still moving forward to a goal...to THE goal. It's such a hard concept to grasp at times, but we must constantly remind ourselves that we are not here to simply live and find momentary happiness. We are made for so much more. We are made to be great. We are made to do great things. Things that touch the heart of God and bring him glory and praise. It's been my heart's desire lately to strive to live a life that is true, transparent, trustworthy, honorable....I want to be real. I want people to see my flaws, but I want them to see my heart through those flaws. I want them to see a heart that loves the Lord and longs to impact this world for His kingdom. I want to love his people, I want that love to go beyond what people expect. I want people to see the love of God in me. My prayer is always, "Lord, use me today." I will always fall short, but I pray that I never stop looking ahead and seeking God's face. Life is too short to miss a moment in self-pity, doom and gloom, dwelling on the past, or regretting a moment gone by. Live today in the moment. I speak to myself and I use my own words for encouragement to keep calling on the name of the Lord. He is all we need. There is a lovely song that is sung by Tal and Acacia called "Yahweh." It is so simple and so sweet. I'll post the video for you to enjoy also!

A lot has gone on in the last few weeks of the Harvell's lives. We have experienced joy and sadness within a matter of weeks, and once again, Our Father has been amazing. On September 14th we found out that our offer was accepted on our first home! We are going to be homeowners!! We were thrilled! On that same day, we found out that Jake's grandfather had a stroke and was in the hospital in Decatur. One week and 10 days later Papaw went to be with the Lord. Jake and I were able to be at his side when he took his last breath. We were all at peace and knew it was inevitable that we would have to say good-bye, but no one is ever ready...We shed many tears and fought through much heartache, but throughout it all, we prayed for God's peace and presence to flood over us, and just as he promised, he was there. We have felt such a peace that can only be given by the Prince of Peace.
Jake and I also celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday! We can hardly believe that it's already been a year. It's really been an amazing year. And now, a little short of two weeks after our 1st anniversary we will close on our first home. We feel so incredibly blessed to have been given this opportunity. This house is truly a God given house and we hope to honor him with it in whatever way we can. Jake and I have been given to one another and we know that. We are so thankful for the love we share and we know that we have our Lord and Saviour to thank for that love. We pray for many more years together, and we pray that God will continue to grow us closer to Him and closer to one another.
With Love...
J & K

..:The House:..



::We Love & Miss You Papaw::




.:.One Year Ago...Two Became One.:.






Memories...Oh Memories!!!

Tal and Acacia..."Yahweh"

War Eagle!!!

Labor Day weekend ended up being a wonderful weekend for our family. We just spent time at home relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather. We also made a couple nice purchases for the house! Very Fun! We spent several afternoons out at a local baseball field letting Norah run out some energy! She loved it!! She also sported her Tigers jersey on Saturday for the first opening game for Auburn against Arkansas State! They pulled out a great win and looked great for their first game! We are hoping for a great season this year!! Norah and I are actually sitting at home by ourselves tonight, wishing daddy was here to watch the games. I have been flipping back and forth between the Auburn game and the Vikings game! We hope everyone has a great night and WAR EAGLE & GO VIKINGS!!!

Life in the Harvell Home...5 Months of Catch Up!

It's been forever since I've taken a minute to sit down and blog about our lives. So I thought I would take a second and write about some of the latest happenings in the Harvell home.
As the summer comes to a close...sad, we can say that we've had a great summer. We had two great trips to the beach with some friends, and to the lake with my side of the family. We spent a great week away in Perdido Key, FL with our sweet friends, Andrew and Leakhena. Andrew's parents were very generous and allowed us to spend the week at their condo, which was so nice! We were very thankful to them for that opportunity. We also enjoyed having Miss Norah with us! It was our first "family" vacation since she became part of our lives. She enjoyed the trip, but she didn't quite know what to think of the waves and sand. We actually learned after about two days that they didn't want pets on the beach to help keep the tracking of the oil down as much as possible. The beaches were pretty covered in oil...some days worse than others. Overall, we really enjoyed our time away soaking up the sun the last few days of the trip. We cooked some great meals and we enjoyed a few good meals at some of the local places too! We had a great time with our sweet friends also!
We had a great time in Tennessee again this summer too! We spent 3 nights at Tims Ford Lake in Winchester, TN. Over the past 6 years or so, this big lake in TN has become a favorite summer stop for our family. It's always fun to get away and enjoy time with family. We had the whole family there, and my brother Kristian brought a buddy of his along who also had a ski boat, so we were able to get extra time on the water. We had a good time relaxing and enjoying precious family time. As time flies by these days, we really enjoy the little moments that we get to spend together. You really begin to see how special those times together really are. We have been so blessed by an Awesome God in this past year, and we just pray for many more sweet moments and memories together.
Jake and I are doing well! We are loving each other more today than yesterday, and we are counting our blessings each day! We will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary in a little over a month now! So hard to believe how fast time has flown by! Big news for Jake...He started back to school this semester!! Woo Hoo!! He's really excited and encouraged to be starting back and and taking another step toward reaching his goal. He hopes to complete these two classes that he has left before finishing his accounting degree online with Athens State University by the end of next year! Yay, Jake!! So proud of you!
I'll post some pictures of us over the past several months. I will say, part of the reason that I have gotten behind on my blogging is because my hard drive in my computer crashed on me, and I lost thousands of pictures. I was pretty devastated by that for a while, and I just couldn't stand that I had lost the documentation of all those memories. We are still waiting to get it looked at to see if they can recover any of them for me. We are waiting to save the money for it right now. Hopefully we'll have good luck with that when the time comes!
We hope everyone is doing well, staying encouraged, and not losing hope! Our hope is secure in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Though, all around the world seems to be crumbling in front of us, we have nothing to fear...
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me." Phil 1:20-22 Another scripture from a recent message at church...
Psalm 131: "My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both NOW and Forevermore."
Ephesians 6:10-13: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
Just know that we are here for a purpose...to be examples to this dying world that our life is so much more than the life we live here on earth. May God be glorified in all we do, everyday.
With Much Love...In Christ,
J & K


THE BEACH...





































THE LAKE...















Random shots of Norah Girl Before & After her haircut!!
Before...

And After...



More posts and pictures to come!!